May 27, 2025
In the positive serendipity that sometimes happens on the Internet, I recently ran across Bill Martiner’s Twilight Journal. I strongly recommend you find the time to visit and slowly, deliberately, read as he documents his journey with ALS.
You may recall my own father had ALS and left us way too early, back in the mid-90s.
Even though we knew from the literature what ALS was, we grew to describe it as “the opposite of Alzheimer’s Disease:” your muscles and ability to move, even breathe, would slowly fail you while your mind remained trapped within.
Reading Bill’s posts have given me a gift. A view into what perhaps my father felt as ALS slowly took him from the world.
Much like Bill, my dad contrived ways to soldier on. But Bill is a WRITER and an observer in ways we all aspire to. With the technology we have now, he writes using his eyes only, surrendering to that which he cannot fight, and digs deep to write amazingly poetic posts as he sees oneness with the world and all its things. Knowing that soon he will be a part of the same cycle of rebirth.
It’s essential to remember that, despite our struggles, the blessing we hear on Ash Wednesday is the truth: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
